Steel Gene: Reflections of Oddity
by MarkMartinMagmaM3
Summary: Life is odd. To the degree that it take turns and twists that complicate the already hectic moments. However...It also leads to opportunity. The opportunity to make fun of everyone and everything in the way.
1. The First Week

**Entry Log 7.1**

 **Finally...A moment to gather my own thoughts.**

 **Got myself a new job and I don't hate my boss yet.**

 **Got a room to call my own.**

 **Got a stable income.**

 **Got a place to make new friends.**

 **Got through a event I won't forget...at all.**

 **(Outside Noises)**

 **Great…Now I got to start over again.**

* * *

 **The First Week (Or 'How I learned to get along with others.')**

The local fauna of the island was staying still until the wind made it move on occasion. The surrounding sands near the water were pushed back and forth by the waves. Everything seemed to be calm and peaceful.

The wildlife ventured out from the land further in, searching for its next meal. The crab, leaving its 'home' to be in the ocean. The home being the busted hull of a decent sized beached ship. There were other crabs in there, but they didn't care about the one that left to resolve its hunger.

It searched through the water, grabbing a massive fish. The fish flopped in panic after getting placed on the land after the crab left the ocean with it.

The big crab...er...man-sized crab started eating the fish as it heard some noise coming from above.

* * *

The mini UFOs landed on the sand as their occupants left the craft by waiting for the glass dome to open up.

Stepping out first was a shorter than average young man, wearing a lab coat over a nice set of formal clothes with brown shoes.. Though it was important to note his outfit had formal looking shorts in lieu of actual pants.

Moving on from clothing, the young man had white hair that had a little bit curl up near the front. His eyes or irises specifically, were in the color of red. Then there was his green-ish skin that further cemented that he was different.

The other pilot stepped out of their ride, getting its tentacles onto the sand. The creature looked around before moving to stand by the side of the young man.

"So...Our task is to locate a specimen that was codenamed by the Rebel Army as a 'Chowmein-Conga' and return with a DNA sample. Any questions?" The young man asked the creature next to him.

"Jreovwioel wkwnvlenv vwklnvwlnv" was the response that was given back.

"Please turn on your translator, I couldn't understand what you said in 'Martian'."

The 'Martian' (or 'Mars Person' from now on) pulled up one of its limbs, turning a dial on a device equipped said limb.

"I didn't have any questions, Voxl." The Mars Person said via translator.

"Then we better get looking…" 'Voxl' replied before scanning over the area around them.

The lab coat man eventually spotted the giant crab eating the fish before they both checked that the crab matched the descriptions of a 'Chowmein-Conga'.

The lone Chowmein-Conga looked up to see the two approaching it as it chewed on fish meat. Then in a sudden, the man-sized crab stopped eating as it charged towards the two.

The Mars Person ended up pulling out a small alien pistol and fired a few times at the Chowmein-Conga. The orange bubble like projectiles connected and caused the crab to reel in pain before it backed off.

Retreating back to its fish, the Chowmein-Conga scooped up small amounts of meat as it watched the two.

Voxl asked his partner, "Did you make sure to bring a capture ring emitter?"

"No...I left it back in your lab for repairs." The Mars Person retorted before continuing with, "Perhaps it's better if we end this one's life and take its remains back with us?"

Voxl sighs for a moment. "I'd prefer if it was alive, but it would be easier to do what you think."

"Okay, then who has to transport the sample?"

"Easy, you're doing it because my mini UFO isn't going to smell like dead crab."

"Fine...But you better make sure my emitter gets back to me fixed." The Mars Person retorted.

And with that, the Mars Person moved towards the man-sized crab and fired his alien weapon. The projectiles hit the crab and make it collapse to the ground and stop moving.

Voxl and the Mars Person end up dragging the Chowmein-Conga to the mini UFOs and place inside the one the Mars Person was using. Voxl returned to the one he was using and the two ascended into the sky shortly.

* * *

The mini-UFOs went up higher and higher until they stopped to let the bigger spaceship pick them up. Clouds can be seen way below as the sky above was clear, clear enough to see the stars if the sun was not up.

The more massive ship showed up and opened its entrance port, activating the tractor beam. The beam of blue encased the two smaller spacecraft in a few seconds later.

The beam brought the small UFOs inside before closing the entrance. The spaceship then started moving again.

After the mini-UFOs were dropped off into the hanger, Voxl and his Mars Person partner had to carry the Chowmein-Conga to the lab.

As those two did that, they passed by more Mars People. The Mars People were doing tasks around the ship in a organized manner. Some were training with their weapons, others were moving equipment around, and the rest were just cleaning the ship with whatever was on hand (or tentacle in this case.)

* * *

"Turn right. I said, turn right!" Voxl said as his arms started hurting from carrying the man-sized crab.

A turn in the corridor was the last obstacle in their way to their destination. The two end up getting into the lab and dump the crab onto a table as the books and notes already there do not get pushed onto the ground.

The lab was different compared to other rooms in the ship. For one, the equipment and furniture inside was clearly made for a human in mind than the average Mars Person.

"Thanks for helping…" Voxl said as he gave his arms a rest.

"And I will thank you once our task is over. Where did you leave that device that extracts blood?" The Mars Person noted before looking around the room.

"Check my desk first. If it's not there, then check the moving cart." Voxl stated as he scanned over the Chowmein-Conga.

The Mars Person found the blood extractor on the nearby desk and handed it to Voxl. The device was then inserted into the crab as a small amount of blood was collected…

...As the Chowmein-Conga woke up and started going nuts. Voxl backed off as the crab fell off the table and saw the two beings that attacked it earlier.

The crab then started swiping at the green-skinned human with its claws as he barely dodged out of the way.

The Mars Person pulled his alien weapon and fired at just the right moment. The projectile struck the crab just as it was about to hit Voxl's throat and made the creature collapse once again for the last time.

"Sorry, I thought it wasn't alive...Must have been unconscious during the whole trip back." The Mars Person said in a disappointed tone.

"... … … ...Don't worry about it as much, I thought the same thing." Voxl replied.

The two continued their work after making sure the Chowmein-Conga was not alive. The blood sample ended up getting into a glass vial that was then given to the Mars Person.

"Okay, you can handle the rest, right?"

"Yes. I'll take care of things from here…" The Mars Person said...before he ends up dropping the glass vial.

It shatters upon hitting the ground, leaving Voxl to sigh in disappointment.

"Give me a sec, I'll get another blood sample."

* * *

It turns out that this particular Mars Person had trouble holding glass vials...As the lab soon became littered with broken glass and crab blood on the floor.

After going through 4 glass vials, Voxl tries to extract blood once again, before he sees that the Chowmein-Conga started to turn into green goo from decaying.

Extracting the last bit of blood possible, Voxl transferred it into a glass vial. He also made sure to collect the liquid that was once a crab into a vial as well.

"Okay...This is the last blood vial we have. MAKE sure you don't drop it this time." Voxl noted in a annoyed tone.

"I promise I will complete this task by keeping this vial safe and sound."

"Then get going before you end up breaking it."

The Mars Person held onto the glass vial with several tentacles as it left the lab….before tripping and falling as it just got out the door.

The result was a broken vial...Which Voxl took as the sign he had to do the rest of the task.

Grabbing the vial with the green crab liquid inside, Voxl left his lab to deliver the vial to the cloning room on the ship. The Mars People in there took the vial and placed the contents into a DNA scanner machine.

The Chowmein-Conga DNA got separated and recorded into the data bank that was in the same room. A quick round of appreciative words were given by the Mars People as Voxl left.

Returning to the lab, Voxl found his partner down in the dumps as it cleaned up the glass and blood.

"...I...I'm really sorry for the mistakes I made. In order to make it for it, I'll let you keep my emitter device...If you'll accept it." The Mars Person stated as he saw Voxl walk in.

Voxl remained quiet for a second before responding back with, "No...I won't accept it. You can keep it...After I make sure it's fixed."

* * *

Some time passed as Voxl fixed the emitter and handed it off to his partner. The partner thanked Voxl for being nice despite what happened before leaving to let Voxl get back to his own work.

The man went back to work on making a new machine based on pre-existing tech on the ship. After sketching down a rough concept of the machine, Voxl left to gather the parts.

* * *

 **Entry Log 7.2**

 **With everything finally being quiet again, I can mention my thoughts…**

 **(Outside Noises)**

 **(The log catches audio of the person slapping their hand into their face in frustration.)**

 **Forget this, I'm doing this another time.**


	2. Progress

**Entry Log 9.3**

 **Today was interesting…**

 **I was up early fixing a machine near my room because it was malfunctioning and making a lot of noise that woke me up.**

 **As I was doing that, my boss announced that everyone was going on a vacation.**

 **Then I overheard that we would leaving soon. I finished up repairing the machine and got ready for this 'spontaneous' event.**

 **And then it went all downhill from there…**

* * *

 **Progress (Or 'Getting used to the daily grind.')**

The spaceship drifted in a controlled direction as its inhabitants went on their tasks and goals inside, aware of the fact that in a few days a special occasion was getting closer and closer.

Time passed by as the Mars People got things ready for the occasion, while the lone human onboard went on with his work inside the lab. Work that would affect his missions in acquiring DNA samples on Earth...

* * *

Ever since that day with the Chowmein-Conga, Voxl was constructing a way to keep himself safe from potential dangers. But besides keeping himself safe, it had other functions installed.

Using a chassis of a Martian 'Ring Laser Mecha' as the base, Voxl modified the inside to be hollow to allow himself to fit inside. He also made a small platform on the inside that would rise and lower due to accomodate his shortness.

Then came the additional changes. The first major change was replacing the glass dome area with a mini-UFO to act as the 'head' of the machine. With the 'head' attached, Voxl customized the controls with a scavenged arcade joystick and buttons pad.

The arcade stick and buttons came from a old arcade machine found in an island made of junk out in the ocean waters. It was picked up via the tractor beam and brought onboard to scavenge any useful parts. (Though this only turned out to be the control pad, as everything else was too weathered to be worth fixing or using.)

The second change was replacing the arms of the Ring Laser Mecha with scavenged parts from the remains of a rival alien machine called a 'Vanguard'. The Vanguard was found in a dump way outside the boundaries of a major city in the Australian continent. (Also, it was clear that the main torso of the machine was shot up with plenty of bullets.)

Using some hand tools from Earth and equipment from the Mars People, the laser emitters in the arms were removed. Then the arms were disconnected and put on the nearby table, allowing Voxl to modify them to work a bit differently.

* * *

The red eyed man left his lab to ask his boss if it was alright to take two capture ring emitters (which his boss did allow), and Voxl got the two devices. Though his boss also did make sure to tell him to be careful due to the limited quantity of said devices they have onboard the ship.

The capture ring emitters did look like the standard issue Martian gun, save for the fact the barrel was more in the shape of a circular dish. To make sure they were working, Voxl used the devices on a volunteering Mars Person. (The devices was set to a very low power setting, so as to not actually harm the Mars Person.)

The moment the trigger was pulled on one of the emitters, a trio of blue energy rings flew out and descended over the Mars Person. One more pull of the trigger and the blue rings closed in on the Martian. They also went down in size, getting small enough to just barely encircle the target.

The Mars Person soon fell to the floor on its side as the rings made sure to limit the movement of the target.

"Welncernovervl elgnfdjknvdkb ver vjwnvk vkjrwenverkjw…" The Mars Person said out loud as it waited for this part of testing to be done.

Pulling the trigger for the third time, the rings then disappeared as the Mars Person was able to stand up again on its own tentacles.

Voxl placed that emitter on the nearby table as he handed the other one to the Mars Person. The Martian looked at him in confusion before Voxl explained what was going to happen next.

"First off, I'm sorry if the capture rings gave you any discomfort or pain. That was not my intention. Second, I handed you the other capture ring device to test it on me. To make sure these emitters work on something else other than fellow Martians."

"Rnvwjlenen fskvbekjv vrenkejnlfwnfelnvr ewvnle wnclwn?" The Mars person worrying said back as it responded.

"No, I set it on the lowest setting. It shouldn't hurt me at all due to me being human." Voxl said before a faint smuggish grin formed.

"Lncwnvn wejvnrwn wcnvrelnvty yiqpodjqwnwqo. Jqaawelnwe pjpcewjonmvn." The Martian retorted before pulling the trigger.

Just like the first time, the trio of blue energy rings shot out of the device and descended over Voxl. Another pull of the trigger made them shrink in size as they moved inward. Soon, Voxl's movement was limited as he continued to stand upright.

"Change the power setting to be a bit higher, It's a bit easy to push back these rings." Voxl noted aloud.

The power setting was amped up a bit as the blue rings got a bit more stronger. But it still wasn't enough. Voxl asked for it to be put higher and the Mars Person did as so…

Except the Mars Person accidently (and not intentionally) went a bit further than intended.

The rings now started putting out a force that made the muscles in Voxl's legs give out, causing the researcher to collapse to the ground. Then the force started to make him feel a moderate amount of pain as Voxl struggled to push back as he lay on the metal floor.

The Mars Person was a bit stunned by seeing this and started panicking, adding more time for the rings to be on.

"Shut it off! Quickly!" Voxl screamed out before the pain made him stop.

The Mars Person snapped out of its panic and pulled the trigger a third time, making the rings disappear, ending the sensation of pain. Once that was done, it carefully put the device on the table before rushing over to Voxl and helping him get up.

Voxl didn't have much to say except, "Remind me to ask which setting you ended up on..." before collapsing once again onto the floor, losing consciousness.

* * *

Opening his eyes, Voxl saw the interior of his own room. The room in of itself just had a mattress with two pillows and blankets take up one part. The remaining parts were just empty space that Voxl planned to fill in with other furniture...provided he ever had the time to do so.

The walls, floor, and door were all made of smooth metal and the light above in the ceiling was always on. Overall, a bedroom that just barely passed the basic definitions for human standards.

However, for Martian standards, this was much better. They didn't really sleep in beds...instead they just sleep on the floor or against a wall. When asked why, they responded that it's been done like that for a long time.

Waiting for the sleepiness to subside, Voxl spotted the paper note left by the door. It had something written down in very broken english. (And it was also hard to read because the writer didn't really know how to spell the words.)

"Yu fal. Tis fomr ht Mra woh voltkner to aisit inn leb. Lfeu yu ohnn seft metearlal. Ope yu rae kay." (You fall. This from the Martian who volunteer to assist in lab. Left you on soft material. Hope you are okay.")

There was more, but it was the equivalent of chicken scratch, making it pointless to figure out what would have been written. Voxl placed the note near his bed as a reminder to hold onto it for the moment.

* * *

Heading back to the lab, Voxl entered to see that the room was empty of life till he stepped in. Despite that, the work on the custom Ring Laser Mecha continued.

After getting the two capture ring emitters off the table, the equipment got inserted into the Vanguard arms. Then the arms themselves were put onto the body of the machine.

After getting into the machine, Voxl tested out its controls. The machine went forward, back, left, right as the joystick was moved in said direction. Then came the 4 other directions, which the machine did as well.

Up next was the testing of the arm emitters. Pushing one of the buttons, a arm discharged some electrical energy around the circular energy focuser. Testing out the other buttons led to the other arm doing the same.

Voxl then pressed two buttons at once, making the machine put both arms up as the combined effort fired off one large blue capture ring. It dissipated after reaching the door, showing the range it had.

Eventually, all of the buttons were pushed at one time (with there being three buttons), as the resulted ended up being nothing.

The last part of the machine to test was the inside platform. As Voxl made it go up and down, he noted the range of height that would be optimal when using the control of the machine.

With that done, Voxl exited the machine and pulled out the design papers he made and finalized the name for the machine.

The moderately modified Ring Laser Mecha was given the designation name of 'Voxleian ZX-S2000'. After that, Voxl made sure to keep the ZX-S2000 in his lab in a corner as he came up with ideas about further modifications.

This went on till Voxl returned to his room, getting rest for the next day. What he never knew at that point was that the day after tomorrow would change his expectations of Martian life aboard the massive ship...

* * *

 **Entry Log 9.3, continued…**

 **The downfall started after we arrived on a gorgeous sandy beach that was outside of any city or town. In other words, it was remote.**

 **I decided to be on the sand as several others had the same idea. They either went swimming or just talked with each other.**

 **I personally thought that was boring and tried to spice it up with a 'Sandball' fight. A 'Sandball' is just a handful of sand that ocean water in it that eventually hardens up a bit as it drys.**

 **So, I made a Sandball and threw it at several of my co-vacationers. They actually started complaining before they realized what I was doing and decided to join in.**

 **This went on till...I threw a Sandball that ended up hitting the wrong person at the wrong time.**

 **In short, I ended up running as they gave chase...scaring me the whole time until my boss got everything resolved in a calm manner.**

 **I apologized and the vacation went smooth since then...and after a day passed, we returned to the work environment relaxed.**

 **That's about it. A vacation that almost went terrible, but rebounded in the end.**

 **Though I really wish it wasn't at a beach…**


	3. Second Thoughts

**Entry Log 11.4**

 **Just got back from an assignment involving myself and three other collaborators. Our 'task' was to head into this city occupied by the Rebel Army and gather 'critical' supplies...**

 **Oh, and the only way we were getting in and out is by using a civilian car...All the while hoping the Rebel Army doesn't notice us.**

 **Suffice to say, I really didn't want to do that assignment, but I had to.**

* * *

 **So, after we get into the motorized land vehicle, our destination was the city.**

 **I belive its name was 'Short Coast'...And that's about all I can remember….No, wait, I do know the city was in the North American continent...**

 **What else… … … ...I think...No, that was just the speed limit sign...**

 **...But… …**

 **(The person gets lost in thought before realizing they were being silent for a while.)**

 **Back onto my original point, our destination was the city of Short Coast. We drove in early at the morning to avoid the patrols of the Rebel Army. And by we, I mean that I had to drive the car.**

 **We continued on our way, keeping our eyes peeled until we reached the location we were told about.**

 **Some time passed as we secured the 'critical' supplies and loaded it into the car. Our next course of action was to get out of the city.**

* * *

 **Once we found the fastest (and safest) route to use, we drove off. Things continued to go smooth until I saw a military jeep…**

 **A Rebel Army 'MV-280C'...Except this one was missing the weapon attached to the hood.**

 **It followed us until I had to stop the car...I was sweating bullets as I put the car in park and stepped out to see who was following us...Since I thought they were going to question what were we doing.**

 **Turns out my assumption was right...As the passenger side of the jeep opened up and out came a high ranking General of the Rebel Army…**

 **That man approached me and stared me down as I kept still and looked back at him.**

 **His appearance was the usual General attire, save for the eyepatch on his right eye…**

 **...Then I realized...I was standing right in front of one of the most dangerous men in the world…**

 **The infamous leader of the Rebel Army, Donald Morden...**

* * *

 **Second Thoughts (Or: Rethinking about my life choices.)**

Landing near the side of the road, a larger UFO dropped off a brown Mars Person and Voxl in his ZX-S2000 machine.

The UFO ascended as Voxl looked to his new partner for the assignment.

"Make sure to turn on the translator before we get moving, okay?" Voxl mentioned as he tested out the controls.

The Mars Person pulled up the tentacle equipped with the device and turned it on.

"So, what is the target of our assignment?" The Mars Person asked back.

"We are sent here to locate and retrieve a DNA sample of a species of creature referred to as 'Sasquatch'. Except the reports say they lurk inside a cave not too far from here."

"Then let's get to it then...Uh...Which direction do we go?" The Mars Person said as it looked around.

"Have to head north a bit till we reach the bottom of a rising dirt path. Once we get there, we turn to the west till we find the cave." Voxl answered as he started moving.

The Mars Person followed as they went down the empty road.

* * *

The air felt weird for some reason as the moon and stars hanged out in the sky. Tons of lights can be seen way further ahead, a sign of human life out here, even in this part of the world.

The road itself continued on, passing over a large wide depression that lowered the asphalted ground. The depression ended at a bit further ahead as the road looked more normal.

Voxl and his partner ended up looking right first as he noticed that off the road was a large crater zone nearby. Then they looked at the other side of the road. It was the dirt path mentioned in the assignment report, meaning the cave was not that far away.

While Voxl went towards the dirt path on the left, the Mars Person went right, causing Voxl to stop and tell his partner to follow him...Before noticing the Martian was heading to the crater zone.

* * *

The Mars Person went further and further into the crater zone and stopped after reaching several broken set of high raised spotlights and generator equipment.

The broken lights were not the only thing in the crater...There was a strange ancient looking monument that was broken in the very middle of the crater zone.

Catching up to his partner, Voxl ended up asking why the Martian went here. He got a answer…

"Rootmars told us about this...These markings...They belong to the ones referred to you Earthlings in your languages as 'Monoeyes'."

"Monoeyes? Wait, why are they called that?"

"Because humans don't know their real names...Rootmars knows their real names." The Mars Power answered back plainly.

"That's not what I was asking, I'm asking why they would be called Monoeyes." Voxl specified in response.

"It may have to do with the fact they only have one eye in comparison to their rather more developed physique in other parts of their body." The Martian answered before looking at the broken monument again.

"So, why are we here instead of heading towards where our assignment needs to be done?"

"Because...I saw it and was curious if they were still here. Except...Now that I see this up close, I can tell something wiped them out...Just not what." The brown Martian said as it continued to stare…

Voxl slowly caught on what may been going on with his partner and just said, "If you need a moment, I'll leave."

"No, you should stay...Maybe...offer that...What you humans call it? Moment of silence? Just do that instead..."

It was a bit odd, but Voxl obliged to the suggestion. The two offered a moment of silence before they moved on back onto the path they were supposed to take.

* * *

Taking the correct dirt path this time, they went up till the ground went flat again. It crossed paths with a rusted over railroad track as a train car container can be seen lying not that far away, rusting away like the rail.

Further ahead into was the entrance to the cave. It was held together with frozen over wood that had a sign as well. It read "ICEMAN".

Below the frozen wood was a thick wall of ice that ended in sharp points at the bottom. Voxl asked his partner to see what can be done about the ice as he went up the nearby rising path to see if there was another possible entrance.

After getting his machine up the path, Voxl was able to see something that made him pause.

It was the devastated plane that lay apart in pieces was what Voxl saw...And he could tell this was not a military plane.

It was a civilian plane, meaning…

Voxl continued to stop and stare as he made the connection. His Martian partner went up to tell him the cave entrance was opened when it saw what Voxl was seeing.

They eventually made their way down and entered the cave…

Inside the cave, the two immediately noticed how cold it was inside. Voxl shivered slightly inside his machine as the Martian could see its breath every time it exhaled.

They braved onard despite that as they passed what looked to be frozen remains. As they keep seeing more and more of these, two realizations emerged.

The first being that the frozen remains were the Sasquatches. This was proven true as the Martian examined one of the frozen heads, seeing that it had white hair and other key details in its appearance, matching the descriptions of the assignment's target.

The second and more important of the two was the fact that something did this to the Sasquatches. Then they heard a rather inhuman groaning echoing in the cave…

The moaning got louder and suddenly stopped...as a disfigured human body fell from a ledge above in front of the two. The body had its torso exposed as its shirt was ripped apart, while it wore pants that went along with the disjointed knees.

And then it rose...groaning all the while as the moving body noticed the two looking at it.

* * *

"... … … … ...Y...ou… ...Al...ien…" The walking deadman said suddenly.

The Martian didn't know how to respond to what was going on and neither was Voxl.

"O...th...er...Al..ien...to...ld...us...spr...ea...d.. In...fe..cti...on… ...I...wi...ll...do...so...if...you...order...me…" The walking deadman said.

The Mars person just said back, "Will you listen to my fellow 'Alien' next to me?"

The undead man nodded once and it looked towards Voxl.

"Uh… ...I...order you to stop. You completed the order and are not needed anymore."

"Th….ank...yo..u… ...Wa...nt...to...m..ak...e...a re...que...st… …"

The undead person wanted to be buried outside the cave, with the reason being that it wanted to wait whatever time it had left inside the ground.

Both agreed to help out and lead the undead man outside, which it took the dirt path up to the crashed plane. Voxl and his partner followed.

The trio ended up passing through the wreck sections of the plane as they reached a smaller lower path and went down it.

Once there, the undead man looked around and stopped at a certain spot before turning back to the other two.

"H...ere… ...I...wan...t...to… ...be… bu...ri..ed… he...re…"

The two asked the undead man to move as they quickly dug up the ground. After getting the hole in the ground large enough, the undead man stepped in and asked for the dirt to be put back.

More time passed as the dirt was moved again, this time over the dead man. Once the 'grave' was done, Voxl and the Mars Person went back to the ice cave and retrieved a DNA sample of a Sasquatch.

With their assignment done, the Mars Person activated his UFO signal device outside the ice cave and the UFO that dropped the two off returned to pick them up. It ascended up after that and went off to return to the Martian spaceship.

* * *

Some time later after dropping off the DNA sample, Voxl headed to his lab and locked the door to make sure he was alone.

Voxl looked around the lab, lost in thought...until he stopped zoning out after hearing a knock coming from the other side of the door.

Opening the door, Voxl was taken back as he saw it was a Mars Person wearing a party hat, fake moustache, and glasses. It also carried one of those confetti poppers in its tentacles.

The Martian quickly realized that Voxl was waiting for it to talk. The Martian activated the translator device it was given and started explaining what was going on.

"I came by to tell you that today, the Mothership is hosting a extravagant party that we are doing at the moment based on one of your Earth's holidays...Though I recommend not attending, Voxl."

"I wasn't going to… ...But why the recommendation to avoid it?" Voxl confusingly asked.

"Some of the others...tend to be more enthusiastic and go overboard during a party. You can still attend if you change your mind... Just make sure to pay attention to your surroundings."

"Okay...If I decided to join the party, I'll keep that in mind."

The Mars Person left shortly after that, leaving Voxl with a new thought until he hears the sound of many poppers go off in the distance.

Deciding to at least see what was going on with his own eyes, Voxl left the lab to go see what was going on with the party.

* * *

The party, in of itself, was much larger than what Voxl expected.

Almost every single room in the ship was filed with Mars People either talking or setting off confetti. Of course, the confetti usually came from the poppers…

Save for the Martians that turned their alien guns into confetti guns. Their idea was to get more confetti into the air and they did do the job...too well.

The problem with the confetti guns was that it could (slightly) hurt or harm if the confetti hit anyone after being fired off in close proximity. Add several Mars People already doing that as they got lost in their party fever and Voxl could see why he was warned.

Passing through the chaotic party, Voxl ended up coming face to face with a Mars Person wearing a military beret and an eyepatch over one of its eyes.

The costumed Mars Person started imitating giving orders, firing off a imaginary bazooka, and laughed like the human man it was trying to impersonate. Voxl found that rather amusing and chuckled at what was going on.

The Mars Person noticed it and smiled back as a response before it went on with its act, making other Martians crack up as well.

Continuing on, Voxl had to watch his step as a sorta of confetti firing competition went on between two Mars People. He passed by after one of them ended up getting hit by the confetti blast. The Mars Person went back to participating after making sure it was okay.

* * *

Eventually, Voxl found himself in one of the rooms currently not involved in the party...The room that held the leader of the Martians, Rootmars.

The big leader turned to Voxl and spoke up saying something peculiar about what was going on at the moment outside.

"If you're here to complain about the other inhabitants holding this chaotic party, I can't do anything about it."

"That's...not what I'm here for. I'm actually here to ask if you know a spot where some of the other Mars People head to get away from the 'out of control' party." Voxl asked back.

"Then I can do something in that case. If you want to stay in the company of less enthusiastic partygoers, head to the 'Mecha' constitution section of the ship."

"Okay, I'll...head there I guess." Voxl said before continuing with, "What about you, boss? Don't you feel lonely being in here than out there?"

"No, I prefer to work on our goals than getting involved in my fellow Martians' parties..." Rootmars retorted. "But if you really want to know, I don't participate because I actually dislike them."

"Then why do you let them happen?"

"I let the parties happen because I know it helps relieve the boredom from being stuck on this ship and mission we are doing at the time...That and it helps eliminate the massive storage of unused confetti we put on the ship a few years back."

Voxl remained silent for a moment before he just said, "Well...I'll be heading off. Thank you for the info, boss."

"Voxl, you can use my name instead of calling me 'boss'." Rootmars pointed out.

"True, but I'm still calling you 'boss', boss." Voxl retorted, albeit in a joking manner.

* * *

Their conversation stopped after that and Voxl left to head to the room mentioned by his boss.

After getting there, Voxl found a rather smaller and less crazy party going on. What followed was the red-eyed man joining the party as he made small talk with a Martian he worked with before on a previous assignment.

Hour went by as the partiers started to retire either due to exhaustion or just having their fill of excitment and fun. Voxl was one of them as he ended up in his room, drifting off into sleep.

He didn't tell anyone this yet, but he also disliked parties. Yet, in the end, he was glad to be able to be a part of it...Even if he had to go out of his way to find a less chaotic room on the ship.

* * *

 **Entry Log 11.4, continued…**

 **I stood there as he looked at me...As he then told me to keep moving and get out of the city.**

 **I think he must have seen me as a kooky citizen because he commented on my green skin, thinking it was paint I put on for a costume party. It probably also helped at that moment I was wearing a different outfit than what I normally wear.**

 **With getting off the hook at the moment, I went back to the car and drove off, thinking he was going to have someone follow us. That never happened, despite my mind making me think the opposite during that time.**

 **After that, the remaining time spent on the assignment was uneventful as me and my passengers in the car ended up getting 'home' safe and sound…**

 **Or at least what I'm calling 'home' at the moment.**

* * *

 **And here I am…Back inside my room.**

 **Thinking about it again, I would have decked that General Morden right then and there... if I had the chance to without suffering immediate retaliation.**

 **Maybe he'll get justice served to him one day...To pay back for all of the lives he ruined…**

 **Especially my own life…**


	4. Past Experiences: Part 1

**Entry Log 13.5**

 **After going through the last two logs I made before this point, I need to talk about something else…**

 **Something other than my job… … …**

 **(Pauses to think)**

 **Yeah, that sounds like a better topic…**

 **So...Uhmm….**

 **(The person takes a deep breath for a moment)**

 **I bought a handheld device from one of those video game companies, along with a game some time around when I started my current job.**

 **When I have some free time, I just pop the game into the handheld and start playing.**

 **The game, a RPG if I recall, recently came out awhile ago. It's either a remake or a port from a older version of said game...I think.**

 **Overall, a good game to play if you like RPGs. I personally like RPGs, but they rank in second place in terms of interest.**

 **The genre of video games that gets my first place spot is that genre called 'Fighters'...If that's what they suppose to be called. No...Wait, it's called 'Fighting', not fighters...**

* * *

 **So... ... ...I'm interested in fighting games because of the skill in using the controls the game gives you.**

 **For example, in order to perform a specific move, one would need to press the buttons in order and in a set amount of time to pull it off.**

 **Of course, just knowing that you can do that is one thing...Its another thing if you can pull it off and make a combo off of it.**

 **As for the games themselves, I can play any fighting game as long as I'm able to become familiar with the controls. And I can use any set of controls in terms of the hardware...save for one particular type I tend to go with.**

 **If I can, I would use a arcade joystick and a few buttons...**

* * *

 **Past Experiences: Part 1 (Or: How I started to change.)**

Waking up from his rather poor sleeping arrangement, the green-skinned man opened and closed his eyes a few times. This helped get the sleepiness to wear off faster and get his visual senses back into work.

Once that was done, Voxl searched around his room for the remaining supply of Earth 'rations' he brought in onboard the ship as his body called out in hunger.

The 'rations' (or in this case, a combination of instant oatmeal packets and instant noodles) were pulled out from the box that Voxl used as a base to prop up the pillows. He also got the reusable bowl and metal spoon out as well.

With the stuff firmly in his hands, the red-eyed human left his room to head to the so called 'Canteen' of the ship.

* * *

The 'Canteen' was not exactly what a normal human person would expect…

For one, there was no seats, chairs, or tables inside the room at all. In addition, there were no plates, bowls, or dishes to use to hold the 'food' at all. As for how it was given out, this was done via tubes and pipes that just dropped the 'food' onto the hands or tentacles of the Mars People.

And the edible meals were just pills... food pills to be more clear. Of course, to go with that was some good old H2o...Which was moved via the same method.

So, Voxl had to hold up a bowl and wait for the water to drop. Once the water came down, the bowl spilled a bit due to be overfilled.

With the bowl full of water (that was also in room temperature), Voxl added the instant oatmeal and noodles into the bowl after moving out of the way for the others.

The incredibly odd mix of oats and noodles made 'Oatdles', and despite the possible conflicting flavors and textures, it worked. Voxl slowly but steadily ate through this impromptu meal.

As he ate the meal, a few Mars People watched him until he slurped up some oat-covered noodles...and they looked away after that.

* * *

With the meal done, the bowl cleaned and stored away, Voxl went over to the lab and made a few notes and sketches on his new project. The project was inspired by the cloning room in the ship.

There was just one problem...How to accomplish that. Should it be mechanical? Maybe do it organically like the Mars People? There was a lot to think about…

Until...Voxl remembered something from his earlier life...The old untested schematics he left behind on Earth. Going through his memory, he realised he left them inside the hidden storage compartment in his office…

The same office that was apart of the technical company known as Kanegawa Military Industries...The same company that employed him as a researcher...

And then came the complications...It's been over two years since Voxl worked there...and suddenly left for very complicated life matters…

Not to mention his appearance has changed enough to cause identification problems...The longer Voxl thought about it, the more obstacles formed in his plan to retrieve the schematics.

Yet despite that, Voxl continued to formulate a plan that would work...It just had to.

* * *

Arriving on the outskirts of the capital of South Korea, Voxl made his way into the urban center and found a place to rest in as he went over his plan for getting into the KMI branch building. The room was rented for the night and it was large enough to hold a actual bed and some other stuff, but all he wanted was the bed. The plan was quickly reviewed before Voxl retired for the night and drifted into sleep.

Several hours later as the morning sun rose, the red-eyed man was glad to sleep on an actual bed and frame for once. But despite the fact he was getting reacquainted with better sleep, it was getting closer and closer to the designated time to get into the facility.

Making his way over, Voxl waited till the coast was clear in the front of the building before entering. Security was rather lax for the entrance as Voxl went further in, trying to keep a low profile.

Eventually, a doorway with a identification card scanner was found and Voxl inserted the identification card he was carrying, Thankfully, he was still registered in the system. With the door opening, Voxl was able to get further into the facility.

* * *

As Voxl tried his hardest to stay out of sight, a few KMI researches did see him, but not with enough attention to notice his eyes or skin. Instead, they just saw the lab coat and thought he was one of the staff.

With that, Voxl was able to find his way into the Robotics division of the facility. There were two rooms passed by had experiments going on.

The first one involved a walking bipedal tank that fired at a armored target with its gatling gun. Another target appeared the floor and was obliterated by the metal rod that was forced out on the other hand of the walking tank.

The second room had a more man-sized walking machine that had a jetpack on its back. There was also a cannon attached to the top of said machine. This one fired off the cannon, aiming at a armored target. The explosive shell landed and blew the target up.

For some reason, Voxl continued to watch the second experiment, finding some familiarity with its design...Getting distracted as he kept moving...

This distraction led to the red-eyed man bumping into a KMI researcher and dropping the stacks of files they were carrying. Voxl quickly helped pick up the files and handed them over to the researcher, trying to keep calm as he looked at the person.

This researcher didn't look very remarkable, save for the Identification card they had displayed out on their own coat. Apparently the person was named 'Namro Nakao'. A name that Voxl though very little of at the moment.

The researcher ended up saying something in Japanese, which threw off Voxl for a moment as he tried to respond back in the same language. Suffice to say, it was very rusty, but was still able to work.

A short conversation was made where Voxl got to learn a bit about this 'Nakao', while also trying very hard to avoid saying anything that would draw suspicion. The conversation eventually led to Voxl's appearance and that was quickly explained as the result of a costume party gone haywire last night. It worked.

Ending the conversation, Voxl left after apologizing for bumping into the researcher and moved onto the office portion of the Robotics division.

* * *

Inside the office area, Voxl located his former office and entered after opening the unlocked door. Once inside, the red-eyed man searched the room to find the hidden compartment in the desk was untouched.

After getting the compartment opened, the hidden schematics were pulled out and placed inside one of the pockets of the lab coat. But just as the compartment was closed and made hidden again, Voxl spotted several files on top of the desk.

Quickly reading through them, the files were collected as well and put in the same pocket with the schematics. Checking the desk over again, a little name plate as found and turned over.

The name written on it was Namro Nakao…The same name as that researcher he bumped into...

After learning that, Voxl wanted to leave a handwritten note, accomplishing that with the help of a nearby pen and blank paper. It took a bit of time, but Voxl departed once it was done.

The note was left on top of the desk, facing the chair. Its contests were written in English saying, "Your robotic designs need major reworking in order to accomplish your goals. Thankfully, I am relieving you of these designs and putting them to better use for my own matters. "

It was followed up by this little part saying, "Also, this was my office before you showed up...Whoever you are. You also need to make sure to lock the door next time as well."

And there was this ending part that said, "-Professor Voxl."

* * *

Departing from the building and getting far away as fast as he can, Voxl heard the facility's alarm go off. As that went on, he kept moving to get out of the city as KMI security forces went out and notified the authorities.

Soon, the streets were crawling around with police, searching for the suspect that stole KMI property...Except they never accomplished that.

Time passed as Voxl escaped the city and waited for the pickup he signaled for. A mini-UFO piloted by a Mars Person had another mini-UFO brought along via a tow line.

The second craft was detached and landed on the ground, allowing Voxl to get inside and follow the other pilot back to the Mothership.

* * *

Back on the mothership, Voxl retired to his room to read through his forgotten schematics and other material he took from the office.

The schematics belonging to Voxl detailed a camouflage design that incorporated manipulations of light and mechanical parts to create a illusion that can project outward from a machine. As for the other schematics he was reading, they detailed a design for a human sized robot that would allow a A.I to inhabitant it…

A metaphorical lightbulb appeared over the green skinned man. Grabbing another set of paper, he quickly wrote down materials and parts he would need.

The one major part he noted among the others was the 'SV-Type Movement Regulators'. These regulators would help the A.I in controlling its body once they were installed…

The only problem was that SV-Type Movement Regulators were used exclusively by the Regular Army...And they make sure to keep those valuable parts protected from their enemies in their bases around the world.

In order to get those parts, Voxl would have to sneak into a active Regular Army military base, deal with their tougher security measures, and sneak back out with the parts. To say that it was easier said than done was a understatement.

Thankfully, for Voxl, a rather clever plan formed in his mind. It was highly risky if it failed, but failure was not an option for Voxl...

* * *

 **Entry Log 13.5, continued…**

 **(The person rambles on and on about the joy of playing Fighting games.)**

 **(Jumps to talking about various Fighting game terms.)**

 **(Jumps again to now talk about character designs.)**

 **(Makes a brief comment about fighter designs and qualities that they dislike/loathe...before jumping to yet another tangent.)**

 **(Insert Fighting game tangent here.)**

 **And that should be it… … ...I really should take a break…**

 **(The person turns off the recording.)**

* * *

 _A quick thanks to_ _Soldier of the Future_ _for the uses of Professor Namro Nakao and Kanegawa Military Industries from_ _Metal Slugopedia_ _._

 _Keep up the good work and keep on writing._


	5. Past Experiences: Part 2

**Entry Log 15.6**

 **(The person turns back on the recording device.)**

 **Back from the little break with a new topic to talk about.**

 **The topic is… … …**

 **(The person remains silent as they try to come up with something.)**

… **...Food...As in...What I like to eat… ...Uh…**

 **I mean, if I had a chance to order something I specially want, it would be a bowl of ramen noodles.**

 **And to clarify, it would be any variety just as long as it counts as ramen noodles...**

 **What else… ...I would also get a wide variety of soups with meat and vegetables, cooked fish and other meats, some type of fruits and vegetables by themselves, and… …**

 **Yeah...Probably best I don't continue or I'd take all day...**

* * *

 **Past Experiences: Part 2 (Or: Giving more answers to questions about myself)**

The Martian Mothership moved across the globe, making a course to the Northern section of the Americas. Keeping the spaceship high up in the sky, they reached the country that held the Regular Army base, the United States of America.

To note, there was a Regular Army base in a nearby country near South Korea, but Voxl didn't want to go there due to the heightened security it would have following his recent endeavor in the region.

That and the next area the Martian had to head to was the Americas to get more DNA samples of various wildlife. So, it worked out in the end because the base was in a different region of the world...possibly not on alert due to being far away.

Of course, Voxl wasn't entirely sure of that, but it was a factor that had to be accounted for just in case.

* * *

Some time later, Voxl was dropped off in a rural area that was near the spillover of the big city that held the Regular Army base.

Much like South Korea, Voxl made his way into the urban center and found a place to rest in the downtime before he could pull off his plan. However, this downtime was a lot longer, by at least 3 days worth.

Using these 3 days, Voxl spent his time wisely...Having access to the shops and products of an entire city.

Due to holding onto a rather large sum of money from his previous lines of work, some items were bought for the plan and others...were not for the plan at all.

In terms of the items bought that didn't contribute to the plan in any significant way, it was miscellaneous stuff like fresh blankets and pillows, some decent sized box containers, cleaning supplies and tools, and a wide assortment of 'rations' to add variety to the meals on the Mothership.

All of these miscellaneous items were brought back to the rendezvous point, getting collected by a Mars Person to be put back in Voxl's room. The process taking up a whole day as Voxl had to traverse around the city.

* * *

With two days left, Voxl spent some time scouting the exterior of the base, looking for any ways to sneak in. As he looked around, there was no weak area or openings that would make sneaking in easy...meaning his only way in was the entrance.

Heading over to the entrance of the base, various solders and base personnel were seen heading in and out to do tasks or spend time out in the city. At some point as the red-eyed man watched and thought about what to do to get past this entrance, a solution to the dilemma appeared.

One of the soldiers that left the base ended up passing by Voxl as they were listening to some music via the earbuds they were using. As the soldier passed, some key characteristics were noted by Voxl.

The soldier was a male with white hair, wearing a blue vest with a white sleeveless shirt and dark blue pants with black military boots. There was also the large military backpack the soldier was lugging around.

Once the soldier was out of sight, Voxl decided to follow him from a distance as the person went on their business. The soldier ended up heading into a internet cafe and finding a spot to sit before pulling out a laptop from his backpack and taking out the earbuds in his ears.

The cafe itself was a decent size and slightly busy as there were a few others inside. They were either employees running the cafe or civilians working on something with their own laptops. Voxl decided to enter in and try to get some information from the soldier.

* * *

Once inside, Voxl ordered a cup of warm tea and took the drink after it was made. He moved over to the table the soldier was sitting at and sat on the opposite side before sipping his drink.

After that, he looked around the cafe before saying, "Sorry for bugging you, but do you happen to visit this cafe often?"

The soldier looks up from his laptop and looks back down before answering with, "No, I don't."

"Mind if I ask why?"

"And what if I tell you no?"

"Then I'd ask if you been to other cafes that are as good as this one around the city. I've just moved here and need to find good quiet spots to be in for my work."

"And what work is that?"

"I'm a coder for the North American branch of Xia Tech...If you want to know."

"So, I take it that you're here because Xia Tech needs coders to compete out here in the computer industry?" The soldier guessed.

"Yes, that's why I'm out here. Though I wish it was easier getting used to be away from home..."

"Then would you mind if I ask where you were from?" The soldier said deliberately, getting a bit curious.

"That depends, what if I tell you no?" in a specific tone. Their conversation stops...before they both start laughing.

After that passes, Voxl continues with, "But being serious...I'm actually from Japan. Tokyo if you want me to be specific."

"Did you live there or were you just born there?"

"Born, and I didn't live there for very long because I moved to the States when I was young. Though my family was always on the move when I was young, so I never got a stable place to call home till I moved back to Japan on my own." Voxl noted.

"What about you, where are you from?"

The soldier remained silent before answering with, "I'm from South Korea...But unlike you, I don't really remember where I was born."

* * *

Their conversation continues as Voxl gets to know a bit more about the soldier. His name was Trevor Spacey, a Sergeant in the PF squad. When asked what the PF stood for, Trevor elaborated that it stood for 'Peregrine Falcons'.

Another part that ended up getting brought up was Trevor's interest in computers. The soldier talked about his experiences and skills with the devices and it actually impressed Voxl. This led to Voxl asking what he was working on his laptop, which Trevor actually did show.

Except what was shown was not work, it was a real time strategy video game Trevor was playing against someone. The objective was to destroy the opponent's base and Trevor was doing that at the moment…

Until his opponent suddenly had a massive force show up and destroy the attacking force on the game. Trevor turned the laptop over and got angry as he realized that his opponent was hacking.

"OH, COME ON! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO WIN, MARCO!" Trevor suddenly yelled before realizing that everyone in the cafe was staring at him. He quickly apologized and turned back to his laptop.

"I take it your opponent is messing with you, right?" Voxl assumed in response.

"Yes, he is...In fact, just look at this to see how blatant it is." Trevor said as he let Voxl look.

The game was still going on, now focusing on Trevor's base as a massive force of really powerful enemy units show up and utterly wiped out his base in a second. Trevor ended up sighing in disappointment as the results screen showed up.

The soldier ended up closing the game, then the laptop before returning it back into the backpack. Once that was done, Trevor started asking Voxl some questions about himself…

The first one being about his current appearance…Which Trevor just noticed after all this time.

"My coworkers pulled a 'prank' on me on the first day of work...that being today. They found this spray tan can and found someone to change out the chemicals. Long story short, they used it on me and got me to look like this for a few days."

"And I assume your eyes also got affected as well? Cause they don't look normal…"

"Yeah, they convinced me to wear these fake contacts I got on at the moment, saying it was a tradition for any newcomers to wear it for the day. I'm probably going to take them off once I get to the place I'm staying at the moment."

"Okay...Then here's my next question. What's your name?"

"Gene Clarkson… ...And yes, I know it's an odd name for someone like me. But that's family for you…"

"At least you got a good family name. I got 'Spacey' as mine..." Trevor noted, albeit in a joking manner.

Their conversation continues after that, taking up more time.

* * *

At some point, Voxl ends up checking his watch and made sure to finish his now cold tea.

"Well, it's been nice talking to you, Trevor. I have to be going now before I forget to remove these contacts." The red-eyed man said as he left his seat to pay for his drink.

"Yeah...I should be heading out as well." Trevor said to Voxl as he passed by to the exit.

But before the soldier left, Voxl said to him, "So, would you recommend sticking to this cafe or find someplace different?"

"I recommend heading here...It has the best free Wi-fi. It's why I come here when I play games on my laptop." Trevor answered before departing.

Voxl did the same, except he went off to go buy supplies for his plan due to it being midday.

Some time later, back in the hotel room he was staying in, Voxl checked through the supplies he bought. A blue vest, a normal white shirt, dark blue pants, black military boots, a military backpack, and a pair of sunglasses.

The disguise seemed to work once Voxl checked the mirror in the room with it on, before realizing that he was shorter than Trevor. He quickly took off the disguise and worked on making a improv modification to the boots that added a bit more height.

Voxl put on the disguise again and noticed that he was a bit taller, but not tall enough. At this point, he gave up for the rest of the day to get some early sleep.

* * *

The morning sun rose on the last day before Voxl had to pull off his plan. He spent the majority of the day tracking down a pair of black military boots that added a significant amount of height to a person.

After finally finding a shop that sold the specific footwear, Voxl bought them and returned to the hotel room to test out the disguise one last time. One quick look at the mirror and Voxl was finally tall enough to roughly look like Trevor.

Of course, his hair needed to made combed and gel in a certain way, but that was to be done in the morning.

One more passing of night led to the sun rising into the sky. Today was the day to execute the plan. Getting the disguise on and fixing his hair, Voxl doubled checked his appearance. He deemed it the best he can do and went off towards the base.

At the entrance of the Regular Army base, the disguised Voxl slipped into the base with a crowd of base personal as he finally got to see the interior parts of the base.

There were several barracks and other structures littered around the base. Some were clearly marked with nearby signs indicating what they were, while others didn't. Then there was the large open structure that Voxl assumed was where he could find the parts.

The large open structure (or 'Garage' in other words), had a wide number of tanks and other vehicles inside it. It took a bit, but Voxl was able to notice a few SV-001 tanks, confirming that he found the right place after getting a bit closer before stopping. It was so close and the parts were ready for the taking...

Provided it wasn't filled with engineers currently working at the moment.

The disguised man decided to wait it out as he looked around the base. He ended up going into one of the buildings that was considered to be housing for the soldiers...unaware of the fact he headed into the one for the PF squad.

Getting inside, the building was quiet due to it being empty...or at least empty in the current room. Heading down one of the halls, Voxl ended up finding himself walking into a rec room.

There was the usual stuff like a couch, chairs and pool table, a cracked TV showing some award show, a knocked-out man…

Wait, a knocked-out man?

Voxl shook his head as he quickly recognized that the unconscious person was actually Trevor Spacey. Just as he wondered what happened, Voxl saw a dropped note near the knocked-out soldier.

The contents talked about some music artist finally getting an award and a reminder to tune to a specific channel at a specific time. Then Voxl saw a few notes near the cracked TV. Those notes were referring to Trevor, saying that he needs to stop banging his head against the tv every time his favorite music artist didn't win an award.

Taking in the context of what probably happened, the disguised man took a second to come up with a snide remark in his head about the weird situation he found himself in. But with that passing by, he made sure to ge Trevor out of there to avoid ruining his cover.

Dragging the unconscious Trevor down another hallway, Voxl found a door that had Trevor's name on it, indicating it was his room. Opening the door and dropping the unconscious soldier off on his own bed, Voxl planned to leave...until he decided to make sure to write something down for some reason.

After writing it down, Voxl left it in front of the door on the inside of the room.

Its contents being, "I hope you take this advice, Trevor. Stop ramming your skull into the tv in anger or disappointment, you'll just damage yourself and the tv."

It ended with, "-Gene"

* * *

Now outside the PF housing and checking the garage from nearby, the disguised man noticed that the engineers had left the tanks and that no one was in there.

Quickly heading inside and making sure the coast was clear, Voxl got to work on locating the parts. After searching around, he located a set of SV-Type Movement Regulators that were left inside a metal container.

Taking at least 4 of these Regulators and packing them away in his backpack, Voxl made sure to leave the garage before anyone showed up.

That part worked well until he saw a female solider enter the garage and spot him...Except something felt off.

The female soldier looked...actually stared at Voxl as her face started to redden from blushing.

"... ...It's nice to see you again, Trevor."

"... … … …"

The female walked closer, saying, "Don't you recognize me? The one that has her heart set out for you?"

"... … … … …"

"The Regular Army doesn't need you...You should just leave these fools behind and join me."

"... … … … …"

The female got close enough to take off the sunglasses before saying, "You can talk...Or just nod in agreement, my love."

With the female being close enough to get a good look at her face, Voxl was able to recognize her...as Abigail.

The same Abigail who was a influential officer in the Rebel Army...And someone who already knew who he is...or was as of now.

"You're wondering why I look the way I am...I'm dressed as of your comrades, the one called 'Nadia'. I'm here to be with...you." Abigail said as Voxl refused to talk.

"... … … … …"

"Still just being silent...I expect your first words to be that you love me."

Vaguely remembering what Trevor sounded like, Voxl was about to respond when a peculiar piece of his front hair end up curving back up suddenly.

"Your hair looks lovely as ever… ...Yet...Wait… … ...Something is off...You look like…"

"Took you this long to notice? Man, they must scraped the bottom of the barrel to have you as a officer." Voxl just said rather dryly at this point as he realized that his cover was blown.

Abigail was shocked as she recognized the face and voice...And promptly started getting very angry at the fact she been tricked and that she found a traitor.

"You're that spineless scientist that betrayed 'his excellency' and his army! WE been looking for your sorry hide…"

"And I've been working on my own projects, instead of the ones for your one-eyed moron of a leader. So, if you don't mind, I need to be leaving."

"Oh no no...That isn't going to happen. You insult his excellency...and toyed with my emotions...You're coming back with me to face your grave mistakes, you nameless nobody."

Voxl took that last part as the last straw as he just responded with, "First off, that will not happen Abigail. Second, my name is Voxl…"

And then he immediately decked her with a hard hook, knocking the disguised rebel officer to the ground.

"...Third, your pathetic Rebel Army is going to lose one day and it'll never come back. I suggest finding another cause to join in." Voxl bitterly noted before rushing off to get out of the garage.

* * *

Once he was out of the garage, Voxl made a beeline straight to the entrance and made it. He looked back to see Abigail leave as well, hoping to exact revenge...just as the base's alarm went off.

Instead of getting revenge, the rebel officer ended up getting captured by the Regular Army soldiers...Which Voxl was able to witness before he finally made his escape.

After reaching the rendezvous point and waiting for a pickup, Voxl returned to the Mothership with his plan working out despite the sudden complications. Of course, the whole experience also left Voxl exhausted as he took off the disguise and back into his normal attire.

Using the last bit of energy left, Voxl dropped the Regulators off in the lab before retiring to his room as he thought about his project once again…

* * *

 **Entry Log 15.6, continued…**

… … **...Uhmm...I… …**

 **I...guess I'll talk about my least favorite foods.**

 **What I don't like overall is anything that's too sweet...Like candy loaded with sugar.**

 **For some reason, I just dislike that much sweetness...Though that may also be due to the fact I prefer more sour tasting stuff.**

 **And that's about it…**

 **Um… ...I'll just stop now and come back when I got something more substantial than just minor facts about myself.**

 **(The recording gets turned off by the person.)**


	6. Repeat Disasters

**Entry Log 17.7**

 **(The recording gets turned on by accident as the person moves stuff around.)**

 **Where did I leave that handheld...It has to be around here…**

 **(More noise follows as the room continues to get searched.)**

 **(The handheld gets found...As the person realizes it was right next to the recording device and that it was on.)**

* * *

 **(The device gets turned off and on real quick.)**

 **Sorry about that...I wasn't ready for making this log yet, but now I am.**

 **The topic for today is about my fashion taste...And yes, I'm being serious about it.**

 **First off, I prefer wearing shorts over pants because...well…**

 **They allow for easier movement and great for the hot summer days whenever I'm outside.**

 **(Another voice can be heard saying some 'joke' about shorts through a wall.)**

 **No, I don't wear shorts for that reason...And I played that game where it started from and it's not funny!**

… … **...Sorry about that. One of my colleagues just had to interrupt...**

 **Actually, with the shorts...I make sure to pair them up with the sharp suit and tie. It just makes someone like me feel more...sophisticated.**

 **...That being said, I do wear other stuff. I just mainly wear my 'work' outfit which is the already mentioned suit and shorts…**

 **Oh...and my brown loafers…**

 **A nice set of shoes that I always make sure to keep clean...Only pair I got at the moment…**

* * *

 **Repeat Disasters (Or: I think you can get what may happen...)**

Wandering down the steep path inside his machine, Voxl looked up to check the starry sky. Or he would have if it wasn't blocked by the light pollution of the city he was currently in. This (new) city was still in the North America region, albeit in a different part of the Unites States.

The reason for being here was an assignment to locate a DNA sample of a unique specimen inside a corridor beyond an abandoned subway system. Except the only to get in was to use a old tunnel just beyond the street that was made a sudden right turn down another street.

His partner, a white Mars Person, was just about to join him when it stepped on the incline and tumbled. The Martian ended up on its side as it log rolled the rest of the way down. The machine also got down shortly after that and became more stable once it reached flat ground.

"You alright over there, or do you want to roll down that incline again?" Voxl made sure to say in half-joking and half-concerned tone.

The Mars Person picked itself up and just retorted back with, "No, I'm not going to roll down it again. Besides...We need to keep moving."

"Then let's get to it then." Voxl retorted back.

The two partners went forward, passing by a rusting train rail as they entered the tunnel. After getting inside, they found more rusted out rails and a bunch of metal debris. The metal junk looked very peculiar as it was either full of bullet holes or cut very cleanly somehow.

It helped that the old lights were still working, except they made the area look more greenish as they illuminated the tunnel. The illumination also allowed the two to see a very peculiar set of debris as they continued to go further.

The remains of what looked to be a very large tank were scattered around the ground. Some of the parts were cannons that were long and a bit narrow looking, while there was this other part that looked like it was for ramming things out of the way for the long tank treads.

Noting that, the two kept moving and went around the massive heap of wrecked metal, finding more metallic remains.

* * *

"Well...If I need to get sick by being arounds tons of rusty junk, I found the one train tunnel for it." Voxl said in a deadpan tone to his partner.

"Wait, why would you want to be around here?" The Martian responded back with confusion.

"I wasn't being serious…Look, what I said was...Never mind, you wouldn't get it."

"Probably for the better, we need to focus on our assignment at the moment."

The Mars Person noted as the two reached the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel ended as it transitioned into a new path that lead into what looked to be a sewer...as the skeletal remains in lab coats came into sight.

The red-eyed man made sure to stay inside his machine as he passed by the bones, making sure to remember that the bones themselves meant that time passed from whatever happened here.

The white Martian partner also made sure to watch its step as Voxl took the lead. The two pass a crank mechanism sticking out of the ground, along with the broken sign that said "KEEP OUT".

The longer they spent inside this sewer, the uneasiness increased. The sewer had small chunks of the walls missing, metal bars and locks floated in the water, and the smell in the air didn't help at all.

Continuing onward after passing another crank mechanism, the two reached a staircase and headed up it to spot...more and more sewer in the distance.

"The information from the files said this staircase is leaving the boundary of the area where we can find the specimen...We have to turn back." Voxl mentioned to his partner.

The Mars Person didn't say anything and just nodded back. The two turned around and descended down the staircase to search the corridor again.

* * *

Searching through every alcove between the entrance and the staircase, nothing was found except what they already saw. Getting a bit frustrated at the current results, Voxl got out of his machine and began looking around again, hoping that he would find the specimen.

Walking past the first crank mechanism, Voxl looked up at the ceiling after he heard something make noise from above.

He regretted doing that...As his eyes met another set of eyes that stared back at him. Remaining still, Voxl told his Martian partner to bring his machine over and to not look up.

The Mars Person got the order and retrieved the machine, getting out of it once the machine was a few steps away from Voxl. Keeping his eyes peeled on the creature on the ceiling, Voxl slowly advanced.

The staring creature followed each step by moving on the ceiling in the same direction. Voxl was just two steps away when he saw a piece of the ceiling fall into the nearby water, causing the red-eyed man to rush into his machine quickly.

The creature took that sudden movement as the signal to attack, as it transitioned to the side wall, getting ready to jump towards Voxl to attack…

When the part of the wall it was on shifted forward due to the creature's weight...It ended up making the creature fall to the ground as a few bits of wall also come down as well.

Taking a very cautious approach, Voxl and the Mars Person had their equipment ready. Once they were up close, the creature got the rubble off and tried to attack. It jumped towards the two as its skin started turning red.

Voxl ended up responding fast enough to have his machine sent out an electric discharge on the arms to stop the attack, which it did. On contact with the electricity, the creature got zapped and tumbled into the disgusting sewer water.

Once the creature fully went in, Voxl took a second to catch his breath as his partner started talking.

"I hope that creature is still alive...Its appearance matches the description of the specimen we are looking for…"

"... ...I have a feeling that's not the problem at the moment. The problem is that this may be the last one-" Voxl tried to say…

Before being interrupted by the explosion that happened in the water, sending some of the disgusting liquid onto Voxl's machine and the Mars Person. The water where the explosion occurred had this purple coloration around it.

"-WAS the last one inside this place… ...And there goes the DNA sample we need." Voxl continued, in a very disappointed tone.

His partner tried to disagree, but soon quickly caught on that Voxl was right. Even if there was a way to find some intact remains, the DNA would be hard to distinguish from the other chemicals and microorganisms inside that cesspool of water.

They searched again and again, but it became apparent that one creature was the only chance they had. This left Voxl to be disappointed with the fact this was the first time he failed an assignment for the Martians.

The Mars Person tried to cheer him up, but that failed as Voxl told his partner it was time to leave. The two made their way out of the sewer back into the tunnel and outside near the incline that led to the street. They remained silent as they went up the incline and made their way to the rendezvous point.

* * *

A few hours later, inside the Mothership, Voxl got to working on his project yet again. The failed assignment still lingering in his mind, even after his boss told him that this 'failure' was not the end of his work for the Martians.

His boss also made sure to say their mission will still go on after adjusting for the outcome of this assignment.

But the damage was done in terms of demoralizing Voxl. Its effects already showing as he tested out some mechanical part for the project inside the lab.

The part was a robotic arm that was made in the shape of a typical human arm. What it was supposed to do at the moment was move the fingers and thumb. Instead, when the test started, the metallic thumb was the only part moving as the fingers remained still.

Voxl jotted down the results after sighing in disappointment. He moved onto another mechanical part test involving robotic legs. The legs were designed the same way as the arm, except Voxl had a bit of hope these would work perfectly.

The test followed and said hope was quickly dashed as one of the legs failed to even move a single toe. Jotting down the results, Voxl kept going around the lab to perform more tests on different parts, getting more and more disappointed with the parts failing.

After going through each part and adjusting the circuitry inside each one, Voxl started getting better and better results. These results cumulated into connecting the parts together into a system and the following tests went well as Voxl spent quite a bit of time improving the system as he also made something to hold said system in.

* * *

Two weeks later, the lab was carefully and meticulously filled with metal sheets, wires, circuit boards, hydraulics, and electrical and computer based equipment. All of these parts were either taken from junkyards or bought from businesses located around the North American continent.

The materials were used in constructing a rough 'shell' or robotic body to hold the system that made up the parts that would allow a robot to move. The robotic body itself was just a built up prototype with its design focused on testing the system.

Aesthetically, it was just a mishmash of parts that didn't look very appealing at all. It was actually hard to tell if the robot was supposed to resemble a human person, but that wasn't the current concern for Voxl at the moment.

No, what he was worried about was the A.I. he was making inside one of the computers he bought. The coding itself took up one week and the current A.I. programming also needed to be tested to see if was working.

Deciding to take a risk, Voxl inserted the A.I. into the head slot of the robot and waited for it to integrate into the hardware inside the body.

Once it seemed like the A.I. was fully integrated, Voxl activated the system and watched as the robot started moving some of its limbs. The robot also looked around before stopping once its gaze meet Voxl.

Voxl issued a command for the robot to walk around the lab, which the machine did without fail. The next command was to lift a nearby box and that command was fulfilled by the machine as well.

Another command was given, except done in a sarcastic tone. Its purpose was to test if the machine would understand that the command should not be done.

The robot didn't catch on to the tone of the command and did it anyway...The end result being that it punched Voxl in the stomach. Recovering from the pain, Voxl jotted down the data and made a note about the current A.I. not getting sarcasm.

* * *

Moving on from that point, the tests continued.

"Okay...Your next task is to activate the camouflage sub system." Voxl commanded.

"Command accepted. Activating sub system… … … … ...Problem detected." The machine said back.

"And what is the problem?"

"Unable to select camouflage. Need sample in order to work."

"Then just scan me and use that sample to activate the camouflage." Voxl pointed out.

The scanners inside the machine startup and scan Voxl. It takes a few seconds before the machine just responds back with, "Error. Subject cannot be scanned due to interference with current DNA."

"What? Why is there interference?"

"Unable to answer. Interference cannot be determined at this moment. Please find a suitable subject to scan."

"Fine...Just stay here till I get a 'suitable' subject." Voxl retorted as he left the machine in his lab.

After finding a Mars Person that was not busy at the moment, the two moved back to find the room empty…

"Ewnocwoinve vbrkvbvjkverb revkbfkvefjkd vnfdjvnf envjvjnnjvevn alajdewiojeio?"

"No...That's not why I brought you here. I brought you here to help me get a system on a machine to work...If it was here."

"Qweoipeowkveo rnvejnjbkb ibrienvbori gnjbntrn nrkntlrnbeljrnbkle." The Martian said before chuckling to itself.

"As much as I want to stand around and laugh at your 'joke', we now have a robot to find." Voxl dryly said before heading out. The Mars Person followed along as it continued to crack jokes, earning a long sigh from the red-eyed man.

* * *

Heading through the ship, the two ended up in the cloning room...finding the robot trying to get inside one of the biological cloning spheres. It got inside and the sphere closed up as Voxl and the Mars Person reached the organic device.

The sphere started filling with this liquid that contained DNA, causing the robot to scan it. With the scanning over, the DNA was accepted by the machine and its camouflage system activated.

The robot began the process to change its appearance…

Or at least that was what it was trying to do. Instead, its appearance stayed the same as the cloning sphere started to drain itself of the liquid. With the liquid gone, the sphere opened up and the robot walked forward, collapsing to the ground as it started to short circuit.

The robot was now out of commission, allowing Voxl to take a moment to check it. The Mars Person focused on checking a nearby Martian terminal to see what happened with the cloning sphere.

"Weiovneinv revjknvrvjnv vkjrvn vrjkv jervnrejkvnj." The Mars Person told Voxl after seeing something on the terminal that he had to see. Voxl told the Mars Person to watch the robot just in case as he went to the terminal.

Looking at the terminal, Voxl read through the data encoded in Martian language and found out some interesting information. For one, the liquid in the sphere the robot used contained DNA from a human subject. According to the data, it was collected a year ago.

Going further into the archived data on the DNA, the human was documented via a metallic identification item found on them. It listed them as 'PF Soldier'' in Martian and their gender was also listed as 'Male'.

That information dried up as Voxl found another set of data referring to a malfunction log. The most recent entries talked about one that occurred 2 months ago and one just a few minutes ago. Focusing on the most recent one, Voxl searched through that entry.

The entry specified the cloning sphere used and also noted that a inorganic substance was placed inside during the liquid pooling. Aside from a warning saying that inorganic material should not be placed inside, the sphere was ready to operate again.

WIth that, Voxl and his partner took the robot back to the lab and dismantled the shell after extracting the A.I out first. Failure was on the mind…

Taking its toll…

The little bits of success being overshadowed…

By the depressing feeling from the end result of this project so far.

* * *

"Perhaps… ...It's time I… ...No, I'm a scientist. I have to keep going, even if my results aren't what I want." Voxl disheartedly said aloud.

"Qoqpwwkcn wwnlcknw cewklncqwkl kjecweqncdkcewb?"

"...Sorry, I wasn't actually talking to you...Just thinking aloud."

"Aks wdcjbewkc wwcukebvkewuv iheilce erkvbeukvb."

"Yeah...You can leave, I don't need your help at the moment."

"Maknxwo jojcwoe ejciclieci."

And with that, the scientist was by himself. All by himself…

There was no one that he considered a friend…Especially now. The only way he would get one is if... …

...If he made one.

* * *

 **Entry Log 17.7 continued…**

 **Then there's my lab coat. I… … …**

 **It's hard to explain with words, or at least the ones I'm using.**

 **On one hand, I appreciate the fact it catches the spills and anything else that can get on me, keeping my sharp clothes underneath clean.**

 **But at the same time, I feel like the coat is going to get others to expect me to act a certain 'way' or think like 'that'.**

 **I mean, I do want to be recognized as 'that', but I don't want that to only be what people know me for.**

 **And I'm saying this while I'm looking at the lab coat in front of me on my bed.**

 **Maybe I should…**

 **No, I'm already used to not wearing it for this long. I can hold off putting on for a bit longer.**

 **But… … ...It's a big part of what makes me who I am...Perhaps it's time I tell 'them'...**

… **About … …Myself ….**

 **What am I saying? 'They' wouldn't understand...Or would they?**

 **(The person sighs, trying to make up their mind.)**

 **I...need to really think this over.**

 **(The person turns the recording off.)**


	7. Companionship

**Entry Log 19.8**

 **It's been awhile since I last talked for one of these…**

 **Granted...it was just three hours ago…**

 **But I feel like I have to say something.**

 **...Well…**

 **(The person mulls over their thoughts.)**

 **The people I work with and live with at the moment… … ...It's hard for me to say if everyone actually likes me being around.**

 **I mean, like there are at two people who didn't like me at all after we first met. Though I know why that happened…**

 **Nothing makes a 'good' first impression like insulting them for their dum-I mean, odd hobby. Said hobby was collecting stuff from something I didn't know about at all.**

 **Of course, I think overall, they don't hate me as much now. So, that's good.**

 **What else? Oh yeah...Then there was the other two I annoyed.**

 **Or was it just the one and then the second person…**

 **No, I'm confusing it for a different event. To be more clear, these specific 'two people' I'm talking about…**

 **Let's just say I insulted one of them as the other walked in...and set me on fire.**

 **And yes, I was on fire...Except it just did some damage to my clothes.**

 **...And despite this happening to me on two different occasions, I got myself into another one recently.**

 **The end result of that one being me getting knocked out…**

 **In retrospective, I really shouldn't have acted the way I did during those times. And despite the plausible excuse I could have used…**

 **I...still feel terrible on the inside for letting those play out.**

* * *

 **Companionship (Or: Why having friends is important.)**

The snow-covered ground started melting due to the star in the sky sending down rays of heat in the eve of morning. This same heat went towards the glass dome holding Voxl inside his own machine as he stood in there, watching the 'event' going on in front of him.

It was just pure chaos…

Small spheres of snow or snowballs in other words… ...going everywhere as Martians run, duck, and take cover around the area they chose to hold this fight. Said area had a lot of trees, rocks, and in-construction snow walls to act as cover. There was some dips and bulges in the ground to make the ground lower and higher than the chunks of flat ground inside this arena of snow.

Some Martians were traditionalists that just built the snowballs with their own tentacles and threw them until they had to make more. Those ones were the slowest in the fight, but they made up for it with getting the best aim. They also tended to stick around cover more compared to the others.

Then there were the Martians who used either their technological devices, abilities, or some other quality to their advantage. For the Mars People using technology, they had their guns modified to store and hold the snowballs as they run around. Quantity was on the mind, and they definitely had it.

The snowball guns had quite a bit of range and definitely added some speed to the snowy spheres. That, however, left their aim to be worse than the traditionalists due to the guns acting a bit off with their modifications. The techies was more offensively focused, yet they made sure to use cover as well. Just not as much as the traditionalists.

The ones with abilities were more like the techies in terms of running around the battlefield of snow and white. While they ran around, they carried a single snowball at a time. While this low ammo was a problem, its impact was lessened by the fact these ones teleported.

Almost every Martian was able to teleport short distances in either direction, but only so many of them actually use this ability. The ones who don't use it say that they prefer to move around with their own limbs to keep them from getting lazy. The ones who did said that it was very handy and was especially useful for getting into the UFOs.

The teleport focused Martians used their ability to dodge incoming snowballs and also to get the jump on their opponents. In other words, they were the most offensive and mobile of the groups. Except the teleporters were also the weakest once their single snowball plan backfires and they don't really use cover as much.

In contrast to the teleporter, the Mars People that had their skin that matched the color of snow were able to be very defensive. Hiding underneath the white ground or placing themselves up against a wall with the same white material on it, they were camouflaged. This gave them a massive advantage in ambushing opponents suddenly. However, in order for them to pull this off, the disadvantage was a lack of mobility.

It also didn't help that as time went on, word got around about ambush spots and Mars People that were hiding in said spots. This meant the ambushers had to move around, but also find a new location and stay there for a while till the moment was right.

Whether they were traditionalists, techies, teleporters, ambushers, or any mix of those 4 groups, the one in common was that they all took this snowball fight seriously...Seriously enough just to have fun and blow off some steam.

* * *

Their little snowball war continued on as Voxl watched on occasion when he looked towards them. Instead, what he focused on was the notes he laid down near his control pad.

Reading over the notes again and again, he was not aware of the snowball battle changing and spreading over to where he was. A small thud was heard, leading to Voxl to look around to find a Mars Person using his machine as cover.

It was a traditionalist that emerged from the improv cover and pelted a fellow Martian with a well aimed shot. The impacted Martian retaliated by throwing a few snowballs back, hitting the machine instead of its target.

Voxl waited for the two to run out of ammo before he activated the machine and started moving. The traditionalist didn't expect this, but quickly tagged along with the moving cover. As Voxl kept moving, more snowballs kept flying around him or hitting his machine. There was no damage being done physically to the machine, but there was some amount of 'damage' to Voxl.

While not suffering pain, he was getting annoyed by the sound of the snowballs hitting his machine. And this went on despite the fact he had no intention of joining in this ridiculously chaotic game.

At some point, the traditionalist and their opponent moved away, letting a teleporter show up in front of Voxl before disappearing. The teleporter ended up being right next to Voxl inside his machine as the two suddenly got stuck due to the limited space.

"Great job on getting in...Now get out." Voxl said while glaring straight into the Martian's eyes.

"Wlncekc nelnvnelje jnenvjlle elknvej" The Martian retorted before teleporting back outside.

Once outside, the Martian got pelted by snowballs fired from a techie and had to flee as the techie continue to send more projectiles. The techie continued to chase after reloading the snow gun by dumping a few tentacles full of snow into the modified ammo collector near the barrel of the device.

Continuing onward through the massive snow fight, an ambusher emerged from their cover and threw a snowball straight at the glass dome. Its impact had little to be desired as it just flattened and slid down the glass before gravity took over and brought it back to the ground.

The ambusher quickly went back into into cover as a few techies show up. Voxl immediately looks at them before making one of his machine's arms to point at the ambusher's current location. The techies smiled back and let the red-eyed man pass before unloading their ammo into the ambusher.

Thankfully for the ambusher, some of its allies showed up to drive out the techies by getting their attention and pelting them with snow once the techies got into a bigger ambush scenario.

* * *

Getting out of the immediate area, Voxl passed by more Mars People that were on their way to join in that massive game he was trying to get out of. The snowball fight somehow became more chaotic than what it was originally as the man looked behind to see what was going on.

He quickly turned around and made his machine go faster…Heading to the nearest hill to see if it was far away enough to be alone for some peace and quiet.

The machine made its way up the hill in the snow until its driver stopped suddenly as a Mars Person in a black inner tube slid by real fast. The tubing Martian kept going until they made it to the bottom of the hill, at which point they stopped and got out.

Voxl tried to move again before quickly turning around as another Martian on a tube passed by. Then another one came and then another and so on. It lasted for a minute and the last Mars Person passed by and ended up near its fellow tubers.

Once they were all accounted for, they rushed up back the hill to go slide down it again. The red-eyed human reached the top and parked his machine as the inner tubers ran by him. They rode down the hill again, almost having the exact same results.

One of them ended up wiping out due to trying to make the inner tube go faster, only to end up falling out of it and rolling down for a bit till they stopped. Thankfully, the Mars Person was fine, just a bit surprised that its plan failed.

* * *

The snowball war actually found its way to the area near the hill, causing Voxl to relocate again. As he did this, the tubers used their inner tubes as shields from the snowballs. While this did provide some defense, a wide open hole was a weak point in said defense.

Heading away from the hill to a wide open field of snow, the man inside the moving machine looked around this time just in case. The led to Voxl finding two Mars People out in the snow making 'Snow Martians.'

The 'Snow Martians' looked like typical snowman, except their heads were roughly made to look like a Martian's head. They also had little lines of snow made to resemble tentacles...Just as a way to make them a bit more different.

Voxl took a second to look over them before one of the Martians stopped him and said "Woienc enceic nenvl nencel nelncjeclwnc enwclenwovn nernrei?"

After hearing what it asked him, (which was basically, "Pardon, can you stay still so we can try making a 'snow creature' version of you?"), Voxl didn't agree right away, but he did.

Staying still, the two Mars People went to work on the snowman version of Voxl. At some point they asked him to get out of the machine to allow them to see the rest of him to continue. A few minutes later and the snowman was done.

The 'Voxl Snowman' didn't fully resemble Voxl. There was no way they could match Voxl's hair exactly, but the end attempts was rather good. The rest looked like a typical snowman, but Voxl could tell the Martians did the best the can with what they got at the moment. After all, the only building material available was snow.

* * *

Voxl returned to the inside, feeling a smidge bit better after looking at the snow version of himself. He watched as the Mars People then tried to make another snowman. This one...didn't get made with the greatest of effort.

In fact, they got lazy and just made its head and torso. But once the head was done, they made sure to try to add some detail in its face area. It took a bit, but the end result was something very peculiar.

They somehow made a snowman version of 'Donald Morden' that didn't really look like the man until one of the Martians pulled out a black eyepatch and placed it over the correct eye. The eyepatch helped and Voxl was able to imagine this terrible snowman as the rebel general.

A mischievous thought went through Voxl's mind as he looked at the snow tyrant and then his control pad. Moving one of his machine arms, he pushed the snowman over, causing it to collapse.

He started smirking at the joke he made for the snow tyrant and also told it to the nearby Mars People. They started laughing as well after they heard it. Once the laughter stopped, the Martian who placed the eyepatch retrieved it and put it away.

* * *

His mood improved a bit more after that, causing the red-eyed, green skinned man to hang out around here as the Mars People kept working with the snow. It also worked out in part because that snowball war never made it out into the open field.

The quietness (when not being disturbed by the building Martians) was one of the key factors that made this stretch of snow covered land seem breathtakingly beautiful. The clean air with blue horizons with scattered pockets of grey and white felt like they belong on a painting.

Yet, the oil covered illusion of paint was no match for the original natural look out in the icy lands up north of the American States.

The serene moment lasted for 10 mins longer till it was disrupted by the distinctive roar of a engine belonging to a type of man-made transport. That is to say, the roar sounded like it came from an old diesel engine on a locomotive confined to the steel rails.

* * *

The disruptive noise keep going and stopping within some decent proximity of the current locale. This noise lead to the trio of a greenish man and two squids from the red planet to go see what was going on.

Stopping at a distance where it would be difficult to locate them in the cover of natural plant life, the trio saw the locomotive rail rider paused in its grand voyage along the rails. Its engine was dead for the moment as the train crew tried to repair it.

Besides the engine, the other sections held two passengers cars, while the rest was dedicated to holding cargo held inside varying sizes of containers.

Life was brought back to the engine, but the crew made sure to check over the train again in case there was another problem. The trio slowly lost interest and they turned to head back for the open field.

Upon returning, everything was just the same. The 'Snow Martians' and 'Voxl Snowman' continued to stand up, while the former 'Snow Morden' lay down in pieces. After settling back into the area, Voxl took a moment to admire the landscape again.

The environment was still the same as it was the last time. The white floor of snow surrounding the trees and other men made of snow made out in the distance. The sky…

Voxl paused for a second as he looked at the Snowmen out in the distance again. They looked like the rather plain Snowman design, except they had the coal eyes, coal coat, and sticks for arms. Whoever made them was not there at the moment, so the red-eyed man made sure to note their location just in case…

* * *

Time passed as more 'Snow Martians' were made and the green scientist read through his notes, marking and erasing ideas that appeared in his mind. One quick glance around the environment saw that the Snowmen out in the distance were closer…

Said distance being a good sprint's distance away from the trio. (Or, in other words, around 10 feet.)

Suspicious thoughts rang through Voxl's mind as he looked at the Snowmen again. He dared them to move and they didn't move a inch. But the scientist knew they had moved...Somehow.

Using the joystick part on the control pad, the Voxlian Machine slowly went towards the Snowmen as the driver kept his eyes peeled. As soon as the machine was just about to come in contact with one of the Snowmen, Voxl stopped the advancement.

What followed was a light tap with one of the machine arms. Nothing happens when the arm makes contact with the Snowman. A harder push is made and nothing happens again.

Instead of going for just another hard push, Voxl activated the emitter to generate static energy on the left machine arm and tapped the Snowman again. Yet again, nothing happened as the static touched the snow and the emitter was turned off afterwards.

With this Snowman presumably just being a Snowman, Voxl used both of the machine arms to push the Snowman over and make it collapse. He also did the same for its friend and knocked it over too. All that remained of the Snowmen was the coal and sticks sticking out above the snow.

* * *

Returning back to the Mars People, Voxl kept an eye on the area where the Snowmen stood, saying to the builders without looking at them, "Can you two keep an eye out if anything strange appears?"

"Don't worry, we'll tell you if we see anything strange…" was the response.

"Go-" Voxl tried to say before he froze once he looked towards the Mars People…

Seeing two rebel soldiers in black military uniforms and a female wearing a white and green dress, some shade of red stockings, and black heeled boots and beret. Also on one of her arms past the shoulder was an armband with the Rebel Army insignia.

Her hair color (which was some shade of pink,) looked familiar...Leading Voxl to recognize the person as that 'Abigail' character he met in the Regular Army Base.

"I would say I'm sorry for getting you caught by the Regular Army...But you seem to find your way out, Abigail. So I'm not apologizing." Voxl mockingly said to 'Abigail'.

The female just made a charming grin before saying, "I heard that you were supposed to be very intelligent…"

Before her look suddenly turned very cold as she followed up with, "But you just provided that you don't know how to tell people apart, you imbecile."

"Just to fill you in...I'm not Abigail...I'm her sister, 'Beatriz'. The same sister that just learned why she went missing...And it's all thanks to you for telling me." The female coldly said before glaring at Voxl.

"If you're her sister, then I'd hate to see you two separated for this long. Perhaps I can call the Regular Army and make sure you get a family reunion?" Voxl proudly said as he solely focused on Beatriz.

Her icy glare just spoke volumes about her personality. She seems to lure people in with her sweet innocence appearance. But with just a single switch, she drops the act and her true colors start to show.

A frozen metal heart inside a charmingly cute jewel box...One of those kind of people.

"As sweet as that sounds, I'll decline. Instead, how about I offer a chance to surrender now?"

"What makes you think I would do that, you cold-hearted demon?"

"Because you're going to be separated from that piece of junk contraction soon. Either you take my offer and get spared from the machine being frozen over and smashed into little bits."

"And what if I refuse?"

"You'll experience the harsh freezing temperatures, at which point, we'll drag your freezing body out of your machine and destroy it anyway."

"Sounds like two very lovely choices. Is there anything else I should know?" Voxl joked.

"Yes...Once your little worthless contraption is destroyed, my bodyguards are going to take you away to become a POW. Except that's not the life you're going to live officialy from now on."

"You'll spend the last moments of your pathetic life waiting till Abigail is free from the Regular Army. The moment that is over, we'll exact our revenge on you...And you won't like what I have in mind." Beatriz coldly stated slowly before she snapped one of her gloved fingers.

* * *

One of the rebel bodyguards in black pulled out a long cannon out of their backpack and handed the weapon over to the pink haired female. She activated the weapon and held it above the ground as she grabbed the handle and trigger with both arms.

"Last chance to leave the machine…" Beatriz announced.

"How about I tell you a interesting fact. The country we're in is Canada-" Voxl just started saying suddenly.

"Shut up you imbecile! You wasted your chance...Now-" The cannon-wielding female was trying to say before getting pelted with a snowball to her gut.

She turned to the direction it came from...and widen her eyes just as a barrage of snowballs all aimed at her collided very hard. The impacts knocked her backwards into the snow, causing her bodyguards to freak out.

This gave Voxl a chance to take action and that he did. Activating the emitters in the arms, Voxl made sure to send the static discharge towards the bodyguards. The electric current zapped both bodyguards to the point their muscles failed to keep them standing and sent them to the ground.

Despite the damage, both guards were going to live just fine. Their legs on the other hand, were not fine and would require some a hour or two before they could use them well.

However, Beatriz was just about to recover and fire the weapon she was carrying. Voxl quickly activated the emitters again to send out three blue capture rings to stop her.

The rings surrounded Beatriz and shrunk just as she pulled the trigger on her weapon. A pure grayish-white beam shot out as she fell to the ground again. The land that came in contact with the beam turned into solid ice. Thankfully, her fall made her miss Voxl by a wide margin.

He quickly followed up by getting capture rings on her bodyguards before he exited his machine and wrestled the freeze beam cannon out of her hands. With the cannon out of her reach, Voxl continued talking.

"As I was trying to say, this area is located in the country called Canada. The same country that Donald Morden was born in before he became the man we know him today."

"I could care less for your stupid history lesson...Let me out so I can freeze those dumb lips off once and for all."

"No...Not yet. I have to do one more thing first." Voxl said before sabotaging the cannon to the point it was broken beyond repair.

"And I was lying by the way, there's more. Here's a gift you can send to your sister when you see her…" Voxl added…

Before making a solid snowball and throwing it very hard into Beatriz's face. The impact stunned her for a good bit. She recovered in time to hear Voxl's parting words.

"...Tell her the gift from Voxl got ruined by your disgustingly cute face."

* * *

Back inside the machine, Voxl ditched the cold-hearted gal and her bodyguards to see that the Martians were the ones who helped him out as they emerged out from some nearby hiding spots.

They told him that the two Mars People that were building snow creatures originally left to gather sticks to be the arms for the 'Voxl Snowman'. Except by the time they got back, Beatriz and her bodyguards had showed up. The reason for why she was there was unknown at this point, but the builders didn't get spotted as they decided to hide.

One of them watched the events between Voxl and Beatriz unfold while the other ran to go get help. The help being the massive force of snowball fighting Martians who sent that large wave of snowballs.

Voxl made sure to give his gratitude for the help, ending with a really good zinger about the Rebel Army that got a lot of Martians to laugh hard. More jokes came as the red-eyed man and the Martians returned to the UFOs they use for to get down to this area.

Rising up in the air, the UFOs returned to the mothership quickly, save for one that took its time. That being the one Voxl was in...As he used the downtime to reflect what happened today.

* * *

Despite knowing that his life was in danger, the Martians made sure to do something to save him. Even if there was an undeniable fact he was not an actual Martian, just a human being that decided to join their ranks.

Yet...It seems…

No, it was clear as far as Voxl knew at the moment…

That the Mars People may see him as a friend when he didn't think they would.

* * *

 **Entry Log 20.0**

 **(The sound of a few keyboard keys can be heard getting pushed. The person behind the typing says something, not realizing the recording device was on.)**

 **Hmm...The data 'I've' collected so far… ... Subject AF's data…Complications with biological makeup and unknown element.**

 **Subject DM-E needs to be compared to Subject DM-DP…**

 **Scratch that, Subject DM-DP needs to be scanned again just in case. Subject A's scan data needs more time to be organized.**

 **Still need to get scan data from Subjects S, V, MR, and O.**

 **Subject O is inorganic and should be easy to scan.**

 **Subject MR should be scanned last. The Subject needs more time to get use to their current environment.**

 **Subject V also needs to be scanned, but that can be done during one of 'our' chess games.**

 **Subject S…**

 **Subject S should be scanned first...Provided 'I' ever get the chance to converse with Subject S.**

 **At this rate, 'my' experiment is one step closer to completion.**

 **(The Person stops mumbling to themselves and keeps on typing.)**


End file.
